BIO

Sofia is a Sophomore student at FSU interested in pursuing a career as a university professor. She was born in Pisa, an Italian town, and moved to Miami at the age of ten. Throughout her childhood, she always expressed an interest for the arts — more specifically, painting and writing — which drove her to dedicate her academic career to these fields. Because of this, her research interests focus on the humanities, as creativity and self-expression have always been her main priorities within academia.

"Dante Today": How Dantean Literature Influenced Visual Arts

Abstract

Archaic literature has always been the source of great intimidation for students. This is why the "Dante Today" project aims to serve as a didactic tool for teachers and students all over the world by presenting contemporary representations of Dante's works in different media forms, such as film, art, and literature. This forum accepts submissions from anyone able to scavenge remnants of Dantean traces and their influence on popular culture, which allows for the universalization of Dante's poetry. ​Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), as an esteemed Florentine poet from the Middle Ages, is often credited with having written one of the most important poems of all time: "The Divine Comedy". This literary work is also thought to be the foundation of contemporary Italian language, which led scholars to label Dante as "sommo poeta" (supreme poet). Because of this, his works have often been gatekept and strictly associated solely with Italian culture. "Dante Today" aims to detach the poet from this biased perspective by universalizing his work and reporting its multicultural interpretations.​
Therefore, the "Dante Today" project has been a crucial tool for the flourishment of Dantean analysis on behalf of students and teachers, which has shed light on the great impacts that Dante has had on contemporary culture.​ Since the majority of the articles published on the "Dante Today" website cover music, visual arts, film, and literary elements, an investigation was led to further analyze Dante Alighieri's impact on the history of art, which has revealed a creative preference for "Inferno".

​

Keywords: Dante, Medieval Literature, Visual Arts